Two storm-chasing satellites successfully launched from Mahia

Nasa’s TROPICS satellites lift off onboard an Electron rocket from Mahia yesterday. Picture by Rocket lab

Two storm-chasing satellites were successfully put into orbit from Mahia yesterday.

It was the first of two planned launches from Rocket Lab’s Mahia space port to deploy a constellation of tropical cyclone monitoring satellites for NASA.

The “Rocket Like a Hurricane” launch lifted off at 1pm, deploying two of the four CubeSats that comprise the TROPICS constellation (Time-Resolved Observations of Precipitation structure and storm Intensity with a Constellation of Smallsats).

TROPICS will monitor the formation and evolution of tropical cyclones, including hurricanes, and will provide rapidly updating observations of storm intensity.

The constellation, which is part of NASA’s Earth System Science Pathfinder Program, requires launch to 550km altitude and inclination of about 30 degrees.

Each pair of CubeSats must be launched to two specific orbital planes that are equally spaced 180 degrees opposite to maximise the temporal resolution. These orbits over Earth’s tropics allow the satellites to travel over any given storm about once an hour, compared with current weather tracking satellites that have a timing of about once every six hours, ultimately leading to improved modelling and prediction.

All four TROPICS satellites need to be deployed into their operational orbit within a 60-day period, a mission requirement made possible with small dedicated launch.

With the first batch of TROPICS CubeSats now in orbit, the second launch, called “Coming to a Storm Near You”, is expected to launch on another Electron rocket in approximately two weeks from Launch Complex 1.

“The TROPICS constellation has the real potential to save lives by providing more timely data about storm intensity and providing advance warning to those in storm paths, so it’s an immense privilege to have deployed these spacecraft to their precise orbits before the upcoming storm season,” said Rocket Lab founder and CEO Peter Beck.

“We’re grateful to the NASA team for entrusting us with such a critical mission and we look forward to completing the constellation with the second Electron launch in the coming days.”

TROPICS programme executive for NASA’s earth science division Ben Kim said NASA looked forward to the entire constellation being on-orbit to realise the benefits for the agency, “as well as for our colleagues around the world.”